Magazines Canada to start traveling psychic tour
Magazines Canada is planning to stage psychic readings at various Toronto media agencies beginning February 28. The psychic tour, which already has scheduled stops at M2 Universal, Zenith Optimedia, PhD Canada and Mindshare among others, is all about building awareness for Magazines Canada and getting the message out there that magazines have a great ability to connect with readers in personal and powerful ways. The initiative, called, ‘Magazines: The Medium That Connects’ is being organized with the help of Boom! Marketing, though rumors of Miss Cleo’s participation have not been confirmed.
MMA bows new marketing analysis service
London-based Marketing Management Analytics (MMA) is set to introduce the first fully integrated marketing ROI service on March 1. Designed to increase a company’s ROMI by over 15% in just the first year, the service, dubbed Avista DSS, can provide a variety of functions including creating customized marketing models, forecasting results and capturing marketing history as well as determining the optimal allocation of marketing dollars across products, marketing tactics and geographies. Avista DSS was developed using MMA’s proprietary models and marketing experience based on 1,000 previous studies and operates using an integrated database of real-time company and syndicated data.
Free long distance from Sun Media
Toronto1Suncall is telling us that long distance is over. As of Feb. 7, for a low monthly cost of $3.95 per month, Ontario residents who can call Toronto1Suncall’s access numbers without incurring long distance charges will then be able to call anywhere in Canada without worrying about per-minute charges. Toronto 1, the Toronto Sun and Waterloo-based Worldline all banded together to offer this service.
Once registered, the customer calls a third party access number that will connect them to the desired number after hearing a five-second greeting from a sponsor. Last month, when the service was Ontario exclusive, over 700,000 calls were made using the Voice over the Internet Protocol (VOIP) technology. Last August, the Toronto Sun launched a similar service that provided free long distance for calls made within Ontario.
Vancouver Island station changes format
Island Radio 99.9 is ready to bring Vancouver Island residents into The Lounge. Launched in Oceanside this month, the station’s new format will now provide pop standards from the last 50 years, non-stop until mid-March, when the announcer staff will be introduced and commercials will begin to air. The Lounge will unite the likes of Frank Sinatra, Ray Charles and Barbara Streisand with modern artists like Michael Buble, Diana Krall and Norah Jones.
ComBase Market Focus: Estevan, Saskatchewan
Estevan adults are very strong community newspaper readers:
· 91% report reading any community newspaper (weekday or weekend) compared to 32% who report reading any daily newspapers (weekday or weekend).
· 62% are exclusive community newspaper readers. They only read the community newspaper and not the daily.
· Exclusive Estevan community newspaper readers tend to be women between the ages of 25 and 49.
When it comes to consumption of other media in Estevan:
· 25% of adults admit they didn’t listen to any radio yesterday;
· 3% report listening to non-commercial CBC stations; and,
· 35% of adults report watching less than 9.5 hours – or less than an hour and a half a day – of television in the past week.
Source: ComBase 2003-2004 Study
ComBase, the Community Newspaper Database, is a syndicated consumer-media survey of more than 400 Canadian markets that provides market-by-market information. It is an initiative of the Canadian Community Newspaper Association and its nearly 700 members across the country. For more information, contact Kelly Levson, senior project manager, kellylevson@combase.ca.
Survivor hits the South Pacific
The show that changed television forever is set air its tenth season tonight, and Mark Burnett is ready to teach the South Pacific a thing or two about ‘surviving’ difficult conditions. Survivor: Palau will premiere at 8 p.m. on Global and follows a similar formula to seasons past. Twenty contestants will duke it out on Palau, one of the islands hit by last December’s tsunami, with the winner taking home the usual $1 million prize.
This season promises more twists than its. With contestants facing a myriad of new obstacles including minimal living supplies and the addition of underwater challenges, producers are touting Palau as the most physical addition to the Survivor legacy thus far. According to BBM, Survivor is the No. 1 show for A18-49. Survivor drew in more than 1.8 million viewers for the ninth edition of the series, Survivor: Vanatu, which pulled in an average of close to 3 million total viewers across Canada.
Nerds unite to bring back cancelled sci-fi series
No, Captain James T. Kirk won’t be suiting up again any time soon, but thanks to some enthusiastic fans, Farscape, the Sci-Fi Channel and Jim Henson Company coproduction, will be returning to the small screen in a two-part miniseries entitled, Farscape: The Peacekeeper Wars, airing on SPACE beginning Friday, March 25 at 9 p.m. Cancelled in 2002, the show focused on the adventures of astronaut John Crichton and his crew, and to get viewers ready for the miniseries, SPACE will be airing the last five episode of the show’s fourth (and final) season starting at 4 p.m. on March 25 as well. The show was brought back after fans organized extensive letter-writing campaigns and rallies and even took out advertising asking for the show’s return, which included a front-page ad in Variety. A 45-minute behind-the-scenes special, The Making Of Farscape: The Peacekeeper Wars will air Thursday, March 24 at 9 p.m.
PMB Factoid
46% of Canadian households use air fresheners, carpet/room deodorizers.
New Montreal FilmFest plans unveiled
L’Équipe Spectra, the company behind four of Quebec’s biggest cultural events (including the Montreal Jazz Festival), has unveiled its plans for the New Montreal FilmFest to debut this October. The festival, taking place from October 12-23 in the heart of the Latin Quarter on St-Denis St., is aimed at the worldwide film community. Announced officially at a press conference this past weekend at the Berlin International Film Festival, event organizers have already been approached by over twenty companies and ad agencies looking to get involved with the festival on a sponsorship level. To learn more about the New Montreal FilmFest, check out the event’s website at: www.montrealfilmfest.com
BBM Top 20
For a list of the top 20 TV shows for the week of Feb. 7 to Feb. 13, according to BBM, click the links below:
http://www.mediaincanada.com/articles/mic/20050215/nat02072005.pdf
http://www.mediaincanada.com/articles/mic/20050215/ont02072005.pdf
http://www.mediaincanada.com/articles/mic/20050215/que02072005.pdf
http://www.mediaincanada.com/articles/mic/20050215/van02072005.pdf
http://www.mediaincanada.com/articles/mic/20050215/tor02072005.pdf
Fetch taking off
Canada Post thought Canadians needed a way to access product information and offers anonymously, and after just ten days, over 2,000 people have agreed. Calgary was host to the pilot of Canada Post’s Fetch program, which has turned in better than expected results, with over 2000 people registered, making over 3,000 fetches.
The service is available through phone, web and text messaging, all without providing any personal information. The Fetch pilot will continue through to the end of March when Canada Post will review the program’s success and consider its future. Read the story about the Fetch program launch in our Dec. 14 issue. (http://www.mediaincanada.com/articles/mic/20041214/fetch.html)
Financial results for private Canadian television stations revealed
Last week the CRTC released the financial results for conventional Canadian private television stations for 2000-2004, revealing that while revenues increased between 2003 and 2004, earnings before interest and taxes declined. The report also showed that from 2003 to 2004, local advertising sales increased 1% to $364.1 million, while national advertising sales dropped 1.5% to $1.447 billion. The CRTC report also found that 2004 spending on Canadian programming increased 5.8% to $575.5 million from the previous year. The bad news for Canadian broadcasters is that while revenues grew from the previous year, EBIT had plunged 22.7% which the commission chalks up to increased programming and operating expenses. In all, the private Canadian television industry employed nearly 8,000 people accounting for over $553 million in salaries.
BBM Media Snapshot: Canadians who use online stock trading
Online traders are mainly upscale, middle-aged men
– 1.75 million Canadians (7%) use online stock trading.
– They tend to be middle-aged with 50% between the ages of 35 and 54, however, another 22% are younger and between 25 and 34.
– Men – 60% of the total – are more likely than women (40%) to be using online stock trading.
– Canadians using online stock trading are very upscale. 8% have a personal yearly income of $100,000 or more, which is three times the national average.
– Quebecers are most likely to use online stock trading (9% vs. 7% national average). Those in the Atlantic and Prairie provinces are least likely at 2% and 5% respectively, leaving Ontario and BC at the national average.
– 80% have an RRSP and they are four times more likely than the average Canadian to have stocks, 2.6 times more likely to have investment real estate, twice as likely to have bonds in general, but only have average likelihood of holding Canadian Savings Bonds.
– 68% did not contribute the maximum to their RRSP in the past year.
– 30% have a total portfolio worth $100,000 or more.
– In terms of yesterday exposure the top four media for reaching online stock traders are: radio (90%), TV (87%), Internet (76%), and daily paper (57%).
Source: BBM RTS Canada Fall ’03 / Spring ’04
The preceding information is from BBM RTS, a syndicated consumer-media survey of over 55,000 Canadians, conducted twice a year by BBM Canada. For more information contact Craig Dorning of BBM Canada: cdorning@bbm.ca.
Da Vinci spins off new series
Vancouver: With his audience numbers in decline, Canada’s busiest and longest-running television coroner is getting a new job and new series this fall on CBC. Dominic Da Vinci, played by actor Nicholas Campbell for seven seasons so far, will move from Da Vinci’s Inquest to become Vancouver’s mayor in the sequel Da Vinci’s City Hall – a move identical to that of the character’s inspiration, Larry Campbell, Vancouver’s former chief coroner and current mayor.
Around the world in 30 days or so
The Amazing Race will debut its seventh season on March 1 at 9 p.m. with a two-hour premiere on CTV. In all, eleven two-person teams (including one comprised of Survivor: All-Stars finalists Rob and Amber) will race around the world for approximately 30 days completing mental and physical challenges in the hopes of winning the final $1 million cash prize. According to Nielsen, the last season of The Amazing Race (which ended last Tuesday) was the most watched season yet, drawing an average of 2.3 million viewers capped off by the two-hour finale’s draw of 2.8 million viewers. CTV will be airing The Amazing Race simulcast on Tuesdays at 9 p.m. while OLN will be re-airing each week’s episode on Sundays at 9 p.m.
